Special
by TheRealSokka
Summary: The Umbrella Academy returns from their first official mission. And Vanya is also there. AKA: Ben needs a hug.


The Umbrella Academy, as they were now officially known, marched back into their headquarters, as the building was now called, in orderly single file. First father, then Luther and behind him his siblings in ascending order. They still wore their costumes and masks. Ben was the last, and behind him the front door fell shut, shutting out the frenzy of flashing cameras.

Vanya watched from upstairs. She had taken the side entrance so as to not embarrass her siblings, and for once in her life she was glad she wasn't with them. All that attention and the flashing outside made her want to slink back behind the curtains and hide.

Father walked half-way up the stairs before turning around to face his team. His face was just as stern as always, but for once the words that left his lips weren't a criticism: "Well done, everyone. You've given a good first impression. But not to rest on your laurels: you all know your schedules. Number 1, I expect you in my study in an hour."

He ascended the rest of the stairs and vanished into the wings of the building.

There was a few seconds' silence. Then the orderly line of siblings abruptly dissolved as everybody started talking over each other.

"That was amazing!"

"Did you see how I threw that guy?!"

"The leader guy was so lost, did you see that look on his face?!"

"We crushed it!"

Vanya watched them high-fiving and congratulating each other, feeling something drop in her stomach. She hadn't done anything, hadn't even seen what they had done. Why did she have to be ordinary?

Shyly, but brimming with curiosity, she walked down to them. Allison noticed her and hurried over, leaving Luther and Diego to boast to each other. She beamed at Vanya. "Seven, you should have seen it! It was amazing! I just walked up to the leader and told him to shoot his friend – and he did!"

Vanya opened her mouth to ask a thousand questions, but then Luther slung an arm around Allison's shoulder and a second later they only had eyes for each other, Seven completely forgotten. She turned to Diego, who had started throwing his knife into the wall hangings, his concentrated frown telling her that he wasn't merely venting, but training. He wouldn't be talking to her, either.

"I have to revise my calculations." Five announced, and in a flash he was gone.

Klaus waved at the space where he'd just been and muttered something about having to get something from his room. He gave Vanya a wry sideways smile as he brushed past her, and she caught the subtle stink of that bottle she'd once caught him drinking. The one that made him fake-happy. Then he vanished upstairs and she was alone in the foyer. Ben had already left.

Alone. Vanya's shoulders slumped. Some small part of her had hoped that after today it would be different. But no. Still alone.

_There's just nothing special about you_.

She hid back in her room and opened one of father's books, trying to focus on those words instead. But Luther and Allison's voices kept drifting through the hallway, excited and laughing, and it made her chest ache all the more. She threw at the glance at the violin case resting at her bedside, but even the prospect of drowning them out with her poor performance of 'The Four Seasons' didn't lift her spirits. In the end, she grabbed the book and fled once again, this time to the garden.

There was an old oak tree growing there, which father said was older than he himself. Five had done the math and come to the conclusion that the tree had to be much younger, but it didn't diminish the fact that it looked ancient to Vanya, and she liked sitting there.

(Her brother had suggested that he wanted to jump back in time to see exactly when the tree was planted. It had her taken a long time to talk him out of it. He could get so stubborn when he wanted to prove father wrong.)

The tree was Vanya's favourite spot, because no one else ever came there. She had never seen any of her siblings there, nor father or Grace. This place belonged only to her, or at least Vanya liked to imagine it did.

This time, however, her spot between the roots was already occupied. Vanya froze in place when she noticed the figure sitting there, before identifying it as her smallest brother, Ben. He sat stiff against the tree trunk, looking at the wall opposite. He was still wearing his suit and mask.

Vanya hesitantly sat down next to him. "Hey?" she asked uncertainly.

Ben kept staring ahead. As if she weren't even there.

A root was digging into her back, and Vanya shifted around uncomfortably, trying to edge into her usual, comfortable position. Part of her wanted to yell at her brother and push him away because _this was her spot; you all have enough!,_ but it was the bad part of her and she had learned not to listen to it. Especially not with Ben. Ben was never mean to her.

He didn't look good. Had he even said a word when they all came back? He never said much, but usually his expression wasn't this empty. There was usually a spark in his eyes, a kind of little light that suggested he could break his silence at any time to say something funny. Now Vanya couldn't see it and it made her stomach turn uncomfortably.

Carefully, she brushed back her brother's hair, the way Grace sometimes did with her when she was upset. Ben made a noise and finally turned his head. His mouth twitched in the attempt of a smile. "Hey, Seven."

His voice sounded – hollow, like the tree. Almost like Ben had left, even if he was still there. Vanya didn't understand it. Something was wrong. She wanted to ask him what, but knew she couldn't. It was probably something just for special people, something she wouldn't understand.

"Hey. You still have the mask on." she tried instead.

"Oh." Ben said. He didn't make any attempt to take it off.

Vanya reached up and pried the thing away from his face. The mask was dirty and slimy, and she nearly dropped it. Behind it, Ben's eyes had left her again and went back to staring ahead. That wasn't him, and it felt wrong to see him like that. He hadn't even cleaned himself up. Father would not like it. And that meant he would take him to single training again.

That thought tipped the scales for Vanya. Ben hated single training with father. She stood up. "Wait a moment."

She came back with a bucket of water and a towel – Grace hadn't asked what she needed it for. Ben didn't protest when she started scrubbing his hands and arms, and by the time she got to his face he still didn't really look at her, but he obligingly turned his head left or right when she asked him to.

The red and brown dirt was persistent and refused to come off easy. A few minutes later, Vanya's arms ached and the water had turned brown, but her brother looked more like himself again. By which she only partially meant his cleanliness: it seemed like Ben's eyes had gotten a bit of their spark back. It was the same spark Klaus had, though a lot better controlled. Vanya took one final look and decided to smooth Ben's hair back a little more. "There." she said, satisfied.

Ben gave her a shy look, finally meeting her eyes. "Thanks. Sorry, I – a lot on the mind, you know?"

About the mission, no doubt. The curiosity she had valiantly suppressed up to this point finally overwhelmed Vanya. "Did you fight a lot of bad guys?! I watched with dad, but I couldn't see anything. Did you use your powers? Did you say something cool? Did you…?"

"Whoa, easy, Seven! I can't tell you everything at once!"

"Sorry." Vanya muttered, biting back the words. She was doing everything wrong again.

Ben nodded; a quick and subdued motion. "No, it's – _I'm_ sorry. Didn't want to yell at you."

The exclamation of "_Tell me everything!"_ died on Vanya's lips. She swallowed it down and twisted her hands. She wanted to do something to cheer him up somehow, but she couldn't think of anything. Cheering up was not something she was good at.

"I wanted to read a bit." she offered after a while.

Ben glanced at the heavy book lying at their feet. "One of dad's?"

"Hmhm."

"Five could get you a few good comics from the library, instead. Why do you go with this brick?" He experimentally lifted the book and promptly sat it back down with an exasperated huff. "See what I mean?"

"It's not bad." Vanya said defensively. She had tried the superhero comic books, and she didn't like them. How other normal people could read stuff like that without being instantly envious was beyond her. "Five liked it."

"_Naturally_." Ben commented in a perfect imitation of their brother's derisive sneer. Vanya giggled.

Silence settled over them after that. Normally that would have been fine. Ben was someone she could share a silence with without feeling the pressure to say something. That was because Ben usually was quiet and didn't speak if he didn't want to, so when she didn't have anything to say – and what should she, normal Number 7, talk about, really? – she didn't have to, either. But now his silence felt different; restless. He _looked_ restless, rocking back and forth against the tree in a small see-sawing motion constantly. Vanya was starting to become concerned. "Ben?"

"Can you – can you read it out, maybe? The book? Please?" Her brother blurted out. His eyes, just a few inches away from hers, were wide and pleading. "I don't…I don't want…You know." he gestured jerkily, his hands twisting and untwisting in a fluid nervous motion.

Vanya didn't know what he didn't want, but if her reading could somehow help, she'd do it of course. Maybe Ben just wanted a distraction. She gave a nod. "Okay."

Ben's shoulders slumped in relief. "Really?"

Vanya nodded again. She had practiced reading out loud with mother, and mother had smiled and told her she was doing it well. Grace always smiled no matter what they did, but it still made Vanya feel accomplished.

Ben leaned back into the hollow and Vanya did the same so that their sides brushed. There wasn't nearly as much space here as she was used to, but strangely Vanya didn't mind it that much. She remembered that Grace used to read to them like this, with all of them bunched up against each other on the couch trying to be the last to fall asleep. It was a feeling Vanya had almost forgotten. She glanced at Ben pressed in next to her and a smile crossed her lips as she started to read: "_Time is different to all the other dimensions, in both its complexity and singularity. It doesn't obey the same rules. There is one constant of time: it is not constant and always changes_…"

The dinner bell found them still in the hollow, reading side by side. They might have fallen asleep once or twice; it was a very technical book. But it did have its moments. Ben's eyes had gotten their life back; he'd even started nudging her side whenever they reached a very 'father' paragraph; the ones where they could immediately imagine him speaking them in his very serious voice. Vanya laughed quietly and returned his impish grin.

She loved sharing this with her brother. And as they walked back inside, it suddenly occurred to her that none of their other siblings could have done the same: they were all busy with father or with themselves or with being heroes. Only she could spend an afternoon cheering up Ben by reading out a dry old book. A small smile stole onto Vanya's lips, and she felt Ben looking at her curiously from the side, but he didn't ask.

She was special, too.

* * *

**Just a small idea that popped into my mind. The siblings are so nice to write about - even though everything I come up with for them seems to turn into fix-its. But hey; this still fits into canon, doesn't it?**


End file.
